Israel-Iran War: Latest on the Israeli Strikes and the Iranian Retaliation

Natanz Facility (via wikipedia)

A combination of factors pushed the Israeli government to strike the Ayatollah regime on Friday night: a mix between a “golden piece” of intelligence and an existential threat. This is how the attack unfolded. 

The two countries crossed the point of no return: Iran with its enrichment capabilities weeks away from the bomb, and Israel, which decided to strike before it would become too late. 

A so-called “golden piece” of intelligence has been recently received by the Israeli  Mossad secret service and presented before the government in Jerusalem.  

It was the result of a cover effort estimated in years, focused on a close-range and on-the-ground surveillance of key figures within the Iranian nuclear program: from Revolutionary Guard generals to the scientists behind the technological breakthrough and the nuclear facilities across the country.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his cabinet, concluded it was time for war and voted in favour of crossing the “Rubicon” to remove the nuclear threat. Operation “Rising Lion” was a go.

In the early hours of June 13, 2025, a carefully-prepared chain of events shocked the Iranian regime: some high-ranking generals were summoned to a mysterious,urgent meeting where they were eventually killed in an Israeli airstrike. 

Among those eliminated: Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Aerospace Forces, and his entire senior staff. Others found their death while asleep in their beds.

In parallel, a series of explosions derived from drones hit sensitive military targets like missile launchers and underground facilities. It was later disclosed that Mossad operatives built and operated for years a UAV factory near Tehran.

In a move taken from war manuals, within the first hours of the preemptive attack, the entire chain of command in Iran was eliminated. It took them hours to realize what happened and when they did it was too late: the enrichment facility of Natanz, a key part of the nuclear program was bombed and critically damaged.

How did it happen?

A combination of factors led the Iranian authorities to lower their guard on the night of the attack. The most obvious one was the round of negotiations that took place for weeks between Iranian diplomats and emissaries from US President Donald Trump.

Their assessment was that Jerusalem would not strike during the talks, “an enormous miscalculation” as defined by The New York Times. A new round was scheduled for Sunday (June 15).

Were the bilateral conversations part of a far more complex diplomatic deception orchestrated by Mr. Trump and Netanyahu? Some have speculated in this direction, but the truth could be somewhere in the middle.

Dr. Raz Zimmt. (Courtesy)

“Regarding the timing, I can only base my opinion on the reports that have been published in recent days,” says Dr. Raz Zimmt, Director of the Iran and Shi'ite Axis Program at the Israeli-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in an interview with the Mideast Journal.

“Israel has identified alarming progress by Iran in all that concerns the weaponization components of the Iranian nuclear program,” Dr. Zimmt explained.

“And therefore decided to act based on the assessment that Iran could, within a short period of time, significantly and dangerously shorten the distance to a breakthrough to nuclear weapons”, he added. 

'A very complex dilemma'

Regarding the future of the war, Israel suggested that it's not -at least for now-  looking for a regime change in Iran but mainly focused on dismantling the regime’s nuclear capabilities.

So far, several facilities have been targeted, like the ones in Isfahan, Fordow and Natanz, the latest severely damaged according to media reports.

A hit on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei could change the entire balance of power. 

“The bottom line - the Iranians are approaching the decisive moment of whether to continue a military campaign in an attempt to exhaust Israel while trying to preserve both the survival of the regime and the nuclear program, or to try to reach a renewal of negotiations and an arrangement,” Mr. Zimmt says.

“But since it’s clear that in such negotiations they will once again be required to give up the right to enrich on Iranian territory, this is a very complex dilemma for them,” he concluded.

The Iranian reaction was as expected, with hundreds of long-range ballistic missiles raining down all over Israel and aimed at residential cities including Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv. The death toll now stands at 10, with hundreds of injured, large damage to property and buildings that were critically hit.  

On Sunday, asked about the option to join Israel and take part in the war during an interview with ABC News, Trump suggested it is possible and affirmed: “We could get involved.” He also said his administration is open to Russian mediation under President Vladimir Putin.

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Damian Pachter is an Argentine-Israeli journalist based in Berlin. He worked as Chief World editor for Israel Hayom daily and special correspondent for Haaretz newspaper before that. He also anchored the Spanish spoken TV show Ñews24 on i24NEWS and served as its senior editor. Previously, Pachter collaborated with The Associated Press in Buenos Aires, Argentina.